Posted - 12/31/2010 : 19:35:13 Which NHL team will win the 2011 New Year's Day Winter Classic outdoor game?

18 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First)

TheRC

Posted - 01/02/2011 : 22:25:19 The North South Camera angle is great on powerplays when the puck is in one end for a long time, but they don't seem to have the quick transitions down quite right yet.

I watched bits of the NBC broadcast during breaks in the Leaf game (when your team sucks, you have to savour the little pleasures - thumping an equally weak Ottawa Senators squad is one of those pleasures) and then the CBC after the Leaf game was over, and the difference was almost literally night and day. I thought the NBC broadcast was too dark, and the cameras were mostly too far away - it was very hard to see. CBC wasn't great, the camera placement seemed a bit off, but at least it was bright enough to be watchable. And less Pierre Maguire.

If NBC wants to help build hockey in the States they really should consider using the CBC camera feeds. As much as I dislike the CBC in general, they do hockey better than anybody else.

"If at first you don't succeed, you fail"

doublechamp7

Posted - 01/02/2011 : 17:41:48 Mario- I live in Manitoba so I got the full game on CBC and it was a forehead-meets-palm-of-hand game, they had the main camera way back in the stands so the rink was only about half the screen and the rest was snow, it was bad. I hope the Heritage classic will be better.

Henderson has scored for Canada

polishexpress

Posted - 01/02/2011 : 15:18:43 CBC was awful: they didn't even broadcast the Winter Classic until the leafs game was done in my area, so I watched it on NBC.

@Mario66, I actually liked the overhead shots, you could see the whole play developing, the open spaces.

I agree, you get lost about where the play is, but when they zoomed in on the play a little, you could guess where the puck was. (I think the shots from the overhead balloon (airplane??) where a little too far away)

It took a little to get used to, but then again, I was tuning in half for the hockey half for the spectacle.

Personally, I tire of the broadcast camera view. The one overhead view where the camera was strung on ropes above the rink was awesome. Having a north/south view of the play was great!

Mario 66

Posted - 01/02/2011 : 11:22:05 As far as the game as a whole i thought it was pretty brutual. The puck was bouncing all over the place which destroyed the flow of the game for long stretches which was unfortunately due to the weather and fleury was stellar early on and then killed us late in the game as he has yet to learn his lesson from the world jrs.

Living in Ontario and not wanting to go upstairs to switch to one of the other CBC networks on the box I was forced to watch the game on NBC. All I can say is if they where trying to p**s of canadians or give americans no reason to ever wanna watch the game again they did a wonderful job. They must of spent a third of the game in a overhead angle which caused you to missed a good bit of the game and then they would zoom out to the sky cam and then you where watching little muchkins chase around a little black dot on the ice. I am sure someone enjoyed the video game style view but from someone who love's the game for its speed, finese and overall beauty the conditions certainly hampered it & NBC did its best to make the american and canadian audience watch college football or the leafs game. The best part of of NBC was their clever commercials nothing more.

Also, can we please get a muzzel for Pierre Maguire for 2011? Do not get me wrong the man knows his hockey and has some clever little puns throughout the game but the non stop verbal diarhea gets tiresome real quick. How does Mike Milbury have a job the only two things I can remember him doing well is beating people with a shoe & killing teams as a GM.

How was CBC's coverage of the game?

Lemieux owns Gretzky

Beans15

Posted - 01/02/2011 : 11:18:03 Yeah, I have to agree that the Crosby hit was completely incidental. No penalty, no suspension.

Ultimately, I have no desire for there to be any more regular season outdoor games. If it comes down to a team missing the playoffs by a point and playing in an outdoor game it would be a joke.

The ice sucks, the camera angles suck, the spectacle is dead. If the NHL wants to continue having outdoor games have the All Star Game outdoor. While they are at it, forget the entire roster for All Star games.

This headshot looks like incidental contact more than anything. I certainly don't think that Steckl was going after Crosby, he's just starting to head up ice and Crosby sort of turned in front of him. Steckl even made an attempt to get out of the way, but could not. The best angle is the one from behind the WSH net.

This might have been a 2 minute minor at most. I certainly hope there is no suspension or fine for this.

slozo

Posted - 01/02/2011 : 09:37:42 Not a fantastic game by any stretch, and obviously the conditions had a part in that. Ice with puddles on it, and later uneven surfaces from the falling water droplets that turn into ice make for a diminished showing of the skill involved.

But the biggest thing for me was the brutal hit on Crosby at the end of the second . . . how anyone can say that Crosby was selling it is beyond me. How there could be no call on a play where the puck is nowhere near, and some player clips the game's biggest star on the head is also way beyond comprehension.

Why is this not a suspendable offense? Where is the outrage?

It's a headshaker.

"Take off, eh?" - Bob and Doug

Alex116

Posted - 01/02/2011 : 01:12:53

quote:Originally posted by polishexpress

I could hear Ovie's disallowed goal loud and clear, I don't know why you couldn't MyTeam!

LOL...PE, you're bad! MyTeam, in case you didn't get it, he was referring to your spelling of ALOUD (should have been allowed).

Personally, the parts i saw looked bad all around. I mean, the puck was leaving a trail as it skidded through a rain soaked pond like surface. If it could have been red, it'd have looked like the old FOX puck that we saw a number of years ago!!! I'm not sure of the solution as i know there's a ton of money, effort and scheduling put into these things but i don't really think it should have been played on this surface!

Posted - 01/01/2011 : 21:08:44 I found it an okay game, but for who was playing I was slightly disappointed in it, I also didn't like CBC's camera placement. It was kind of dumb of them to not show parts of it in Ontario and Alberta.

Henderson has scored for Canada

MyTeamRules

Posted - 01/01/2011 : 20:20:41 Fleury has never been a great goalie, he was brought up so young that he makes so many Mistakes. (I wrote Crosby played Dazed and Confused because of the unintentianal blind side.)Ovies goal should have been aloud

”If you've only got one day to live, come see the Toronto Maple Leafs. It'll seem like forever. ” - Pat

polishexpress

Posted - 01/01/2011 : 20:04:05 Crosby only played dazed and confused after Steckel blindsided him. I was truly surprised there was no call on it. Maybe it was how he tried to sell the penalty shot earlier when he drew the tripping call that biased the refs against Crosby in the call.

But, great game, lots of fun to watch. It seemed like the game was a battle of who could play better in the rain.

I kept wondering why Fleury was so stupid as to go behind his net so often to play the puck even after he gave up the go-ahead-goal.

Any thoughts on why he didn't get the hint that the ice-surface didn't bode well for him playing the puck? Why couldn't he just let his D-men play it?

MyTeamRules

Posted - 01/01/2011 : 19:54:30 Washington clearly played better this game, good job.Today I saw Ovechkin play great 2 way play, Letang play with Detirmination, Crosby playing dazed and confused, and Green playing great offensivley.What did you see?

”If you've only got one day to live, come see the Toronto Maple Leafs. It'll seem like forever. ” - Pat